Northern Ireland

We flew to Belfast on EasyJet. First thing was lunch at EDO, a tapas restaurant. On weekends restaurants are often fully booked so for once, we had actually planned ahead. A short while later we had dinner at Ora, also a tapas bar and also scheduled in advance. We do like tapas but we didn't think that through very well. That said, we enjoyed both meals.

In both Belfast and Derry we had tours that illuminated the story of the period referred to somewhat discreetly as "The Troubles". We toured around the Antrim Peninsula enroute to Derry, visiting the Bushmills Distillery and the Giants Causeway.

In Belfast we had a Black Taxi Mural Tour. The tour took us through the checkerboard of Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods that are strongly divided with walls (up to 45 feet high) and gates that close over night, even today! That's right, even today Belfast lives the sectarian experience. Our guide indicated that the continued segregation is keeping the conflict alive in spirit although he also shared stories of  non-sectarian efforts to address social issues. 

In the photo below (cw) see the not-so-harmless rubber bullets (with 2 hiding the hand holding them), homes flying flags declaring their allegiance, one of the taller walls with us in front of it, paintings of Queen Elizabeth by school children, one of the gates which still close at 7pm each day, a mural re the non-sectarian Community efforts, another gate, and the other side of that tall wall.

Our tour brought us to various landmarks (cw from top left)

• Beacon of Hope/Harmony in Thanksgiving Square
• the Big Fish in CS Lewis Square
• The Titanic Museum (Belfast being the home of the Titanic) ...we didn't visit it, we saw a great exhibit in Florida years ago and didn't feel the need to do it again
• Sampson & Goliath gantry cranes in the shipyards

A couple days later we had a tour of Derry (aka Londonderry if you are a strong Unionist. See glossary following.) Our guide had recently driven the development and opening of a museum focused on the peace process. We visited Free Derry Corner with murals by local Bogside artists. Bogside is the Catholic/republican area outside the city walls. We also spent time at the newly opened museum. The museum shares the story effectively. We must have spent an hour there. Then we had lunch at their fine (truly fine) restaurant. 

Below: A peaceful dove mural, the Peace Bridge. a stack of colored pallets being setup to serve as one of many bonfires commemorating the Catholic Feast of the Assumption on August 15, a mural of Bernadette Devlin-a civil rights leader and the Bloody Sunday memorial.

We felt the Derry folks we talked with were more ready to put the Troubles behind them, perhaps because their neighborhoods are less segregated.

Background Notes

The Troubles involved numerous riots and mass protests, that led to increased segregation and the creation of temporary no-go areas. The conflict began in the late 1960s. Increasing tensions led to the August 1969 riots and the deployment of British troops, in what became the British Army's longest operation

The Troubles Period is generally considered to have ended with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.

The conflict began as a campaign to end discrimination against the Catholic-nationalist minority by the Protestant-unionist government. It was primarily political and nationalistic, being fueled by historical events. It also had an ethnic or sectarian dimension but despite the common usage of the terms Protestant and Catholic to refer to the two sides, it was not a religious conflict.

One noted deadly milestone is known as Bloody Sunday. On Sunday Jan 30 1972 the civil rights march in Derry, intended to protest against internment without trial, turned into a massacre when British soldiers fired live ammunition into the crowd.

The players are referred to by many terms some of which are often used interchangeably...

• Republicans/Nationalists/Green/mainly Catholic side  ...wanted Northern Ireland to leave the United Kingdom and join a united Ireland. Paramilitariy groups included the Irish Republican Army (IRA), the Sinn Féin and the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA)
• Unionists/Loyalists/Orange/mainly Protestant ...wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom. Paramilitary groups included Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Ulster Defence Association (UDA). The police, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), were overwhelmingly Protestant and known for sectarianism and police brutality.

Between the cities we had a chance to see some of the Antrim Peninsula Glenarm Town and St Patrick's church, Ballintoy Harbor and the countryside.

Further alond were Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge (we chose not to stand in a long line in the rain to cross it) and the Giants Causeway (some 40,000 large, regularly shaped polygonal columns of basalt in perfect horizontal sections, forming a pavement.)

Along the way we stopped to sample the range of whiskeys at the Bushmill's distillery.

During our tour of Derry we saw a gate in part of the old wall, St Augustine Church, St Eugene Cathedral, and a view of the River Foyle from Waterside.

The next day we moved on to the Republic of Ireland knowing far more about the Troubles than we ever imagined.